Dancing With the Devil

Completed training week 4 of 17 over the weekend, and overall I’d call it another successful week. Since we were still traveling on vacation I had to cut a couple runs short, but I managed to not miss any runs, and got 33 of the 38 planned miles in the books.

Having come into this training cycle still working against ITBS and Plantar Fasciitis, continuing to increase my mileage has me walking a fine line. It’s a delicate dance between pushing and improving, and pushing and breaking. Yesterday’s 16-mile long run was a pretty big test of just where my knees and feet really are in the healing process. I got a very early start this time, and the weather was cooperative, so I managed to make it through 16.12 miles without any major issues. Ran it at an overall 9:06 pace, which is considerably faster than I intended to run, but I’m finding that as I add speed work mid-week, it’s becoming harder to slow down on my endurance runs.

In terms of injuries, my knees felt good throughout the run, and my right knee is a bit sore today, but it doesn’t feel like it hurts in an injured way. My right heel was making sure I remembered it was there throughout the run, but overall held up pretty well. Some soreness today, but well below the level of pain I felt when the PF was in full effect. My right hamstring was sore before I started the run, thanks to far too much squatting while gardening and pressure-washing on Saturday, and it’s very tender this morning, but I don’t sense this is an ‘injury’ either.

Hydration-wise, I think my 4-bottle Fuel Belt isn’t enough to cover me once my runs get over 12 miles. I’m going to start looking into adding a handheld to the mix on my longer runs. Time to do some research.

16 miles was my longest run so far in the Gel Nimbus 12, and they felt pretty good. Big difference at that distance between my old squishy insoles and my green Superfeet, but I think my soles are getting stronger with the decrease in cushion.